Last modified: 2002-10-12 by jarig bakker
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by Gerard van der Vaart and António Martins, 22 Nov
1998
Article 4: The emblem of the Republic is a light green flag, ornamented in the centre with a yellow circle in which a right hand is holding a torch with a red flame.This flag was adopted on 19th November 1971 when the parliament adopted Loi no. 71-007 du 19 novembre 1971 portant revision de la Constitution.
In the first week of August 1992 there was already a legal mouve to get rid of the ’green flag with tourch’. At that time a National Conference was held in Kinshasa, which task it was to give Zaire a new - democratic - constitution - following other African countries which already did that. This National Conference decided to rename Zaire to Congo as well as to go back to "the old flag". Already a few days later this National Conference was abolished by order of mr. Mobutu.
Jos Poels, 19 May 97
As far as I know the lightest green used on a flag was in Zaire’s flag.
Ralf Stelter, 25 Jul 1999
by Marcus Wendel, 16 Aug 1999 (source:[tal94])
This is the Presidential flag of Zaire under Mobuto.
Bruce Berry, 16 Aug 1999
The silhouetes are very familliar: The tank is a French AMX-13
and the jet is a French Mirage IIIC
Dov Gutterman, 16 Aug 1999
See DR Congo - Coat of Arms for details on the coat of arms.
As others have noted, the flag is not in use any more. It was shown
in Smith's 1980 [smi82] book and text regarding
it says:
"Presidential flag is used by the prime-minister in his office as lietenant-general
of Zaire armed forces. On his car he uses the national flag."
The flag is provided ratio approx. 3:4, and marked as "alternation"
(one of several possible flags used either simultaniously or under certain
conditions):![[alternative]](fis_alte.gif){kind=small}
Zeljko Heimer, 17 Aug 1999
by António Martins, 22 Nov 1998, after image sent by by Nathan
Bliss, 7 Jan 1997
My question here is what really is this flag, because is surely not
Mobutu’s party flag. Not only it has no resemblance to the Zaire flag,
but also it features a map of Zaire / Congo-K. without the southern
secessionist provinces of
Katanga/Shaba,
Southern
Kasai and what seems to be part of Kivu,
something Mobutu would never had endorsed.
António Martins, 22 Nov 1998
It seems to me that that the map is just a distortion in order to fit
the flag (and the outspread hands). The long stretch into Zambia is there,
as well as the hiccups in the frontiers between Congo and Zambia. IMO it's
quite safe to assume that Nathan Bliss' image was a bit distorted and that
the real flag had the real map of Congo (or Zaïre) on it in red. Many
political flags produced by expatriates have been proved to be geographically
(or otherwise) incorrect.
Mobutu's party was the Popular Movement of the Revolution (Mouvement
Populaire de la Révolution), founded in 1967 as the principle
vehicle of the Mobutu regime. It was renamed in 1990 to Popular Movement
for Renewal (Mouvement Populaire Renouveau - MPR).
Jarig Bakker, 9 Oct 2002
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